Validation of Short-Term Skin-Sensitizing Igg Antibodies to Egg in Atopic Dermatitis by Prausnitz-Küstner (P-K) and Oral P-K Tests

ABSTRACTWe tried to evaluate the role of IgG antibodies in the wheal and flare reaction of infantile atopic dermatitis by in vivo skin-sensitizing methods. Sera from 49 patients under 6 years of age were heated at 56°C for 30min to inactivate IgE antibodies, according to previous reports. Two-fold serial dilutions of the heated serum were injected intracutaneously in both forearms of a non-allergic recipient. One hour later, the whole egg antigen (1:1000) was injected in the serum transfer sites of an arm and the reaction was read at 15min (IgG Prausnitz-Küstner (P-K) test). Immediately afterwards, a raw hen's egg was swallowed by the recipient and the serum transfer sites of the other arm were observed for 2h (oral IgG P-K test). Three patients under 1 year of age showed an immediate wheal and flare reaction in the IgG P-K test, but none of the patients showed a positive reaction in the oral IgG P-K test. The patients with a positive IgG P-K test had an IgE radioallergosorbent test (RAST) score >4 to egg white and a positive IgE P-K titer of >28 to whole egg antigen. Two patients showed a positive reaction to the oral IgE P-K test to raw egg ingestion. Ovalbumin-specific IgG, lgG3 and lgG4 antibodies were assayed in 20 patients. IgG, and lgG3 antibodies were significantly increased in two patients with a positive IgG P-K test, while levels of the lgG4 antibody in positive patients were not significantly increased in comparison with levels in negative patients. In conclusion, these results suggest that the IgG antibody may play a role in the immediate type allergic reaction in infantile atopic dermatitis

Requirements for physician competencies in allergy: key clinical competencies appropriate for the care of patients with allergic or immunologic diseases

Egypt J Pediatr Allergy Immunol 2009; 7(1): 33-3

プラズマ ノ フレンゾクブ ニオケル ハンシャ ト トウカ

In order to examine the two types of boundary condition model at a plasma discontinuity, the problem of reflection and refraction at the plasma discontinuity is investigated for each type of model. First model is an inpenetrable boundary model and the other is an extended rigid boundary model. It is found that the rate of mode-conversion by the former model is generally much larger than that by the latter. Furthermore, the validity of each model is studied in detail

Measurement of the Bottom-Strange Meson Mixing Phase in the Full CDF Data Set

We report a measurement of the bottom-strange meson mixing phase \beta_s using the time evolution of B0_s -> J/\psi (->\mu+\mu-) \phi (-> K+ K-) decays in which the quark-flavor content of the bottom-strange meson is identified at production. This measurement uses the full data set of proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt(s)= 1.96 TeV collected by the Collider Detector experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to 9.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. We report confidence regions in the two-dimensional space of \beta_s and the B0_s decay-width difference \Delta\Gamma_s, and measure \beta_s in [-\pi/2, -1.51] U [-0.06, 0.30] U [1.26, \pi/2] at the 68% confidence level, in agreement with the standard model expectation. Assuming the standard model value of \beta_s, we also determine \Delta\Gamma_s = 0.068 +- 0.026 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps-1 and the mean B0_s lifetime, \tau_s = 1.528 +- 0.019 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps, which are consistent and competitive with determinations by other experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett 109, 171802 (2012

A case of anaphylactoid reaction due to Matsutake mushroom (Tricoloma matsutake) ingestion

The case history of a 27-year-old man with Matsutake mushroom-dependent anaphylactoid reaction is reported. The patient suffered from general cutaneous erythema, with itching, urticaria angiedema to his face and body, and with inspiratory dyspnea, soon after consuming a meal of Matsutake mushrooms. A challenge test with about 100 g grilled Matsutake mushrooms resulted in irritation of the throat, inspiratory dyspnea and lowering of peak flow rate, all of which were observed after about 30 min. These symptoms disappeared spontaneously 4 h later, without treatment. About 5 h after the challenge, the patient suffered from dyspnea and general cutaneous erythema, with urticaria of his face and body. Hydrocortisone was given and next morning he had no more symptoms. Laboratory data showed elevation of neutrophils and myeloperoxidase after the challenge, but no elevation of serum histamine. This is the second case of anaphylaxis or anaphylactoid reaction to Matsutake mushrooms for which IgE antibody to Matsutake may not be the cause

Identifying Predictors of Response to Suplatast Tosilate among Patients with Moderate to Severe Bronchial Asthma Receiving Inhaled Steroid Therapy

ABSTRACTBackgroundThe aim of this study was to identify the predictive factors, among laboratory test data and patient background variables, of an efficient response to the anti-allergic agent suplatast tosilate in patients with moderate to severe bronchial asthma.MethodsThe subjects were 44 patients with moderate to severe bronchial asthma on inhaled steroid therapy who were enrolled in a phase II clinical trial of suplatast (300 and 600 mg/day). Improvements in respiratory function parameters and symptom scores during the first 4 weeks of administration of suplatast were assessed to evaluate the response to the drug. Logistic regression analysis was used to relate the response to the independent variables. Secondly, to test whether these results were applicable to clinical practice, we examined the data from a phase III clinical trial of suplatast.ResultsTwenty-two patients were assessed as responders according to our criteria. The percentage of blood eosinophil (%EOS, P = 0.015) and basophil (%BASO, P = 0.019) counts were identified as significant variables to predict responders. When cut-off levels for %EOS and %BASO were set at 7.5 and 1.2, respectively, the sensitivity for prediction of responders with lower %EOS and %BASO was 81.8% (18/22). Furthermore, when we applied the same cut-off levels to subjects of a phase III clinical trial of suplatast, the sensitivity of prediction was found to be as high as 75.0% (6/8).ConclusionsThese results indicate that %EOS and %BASO are good candidates to predict the response to suplatast among patients with moderate to severe bronchial asthma on inhaled steroid therapy. These predictors may contribute, in combination with genomic information, to stratified medical treatment tailored to the individual needs of patients